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The Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto construction of holographic QCD in terms of D4 color branes and D8 flavor branes in type IIA string theory is used to investigate the role of topological charge in the chiral dynamics of quarks in QCD. The QCD theta term arises from a compactified 5-dimensional Chern-Simons term on the D4 branes. This term couples the QCD topological charge to the Ramond-Ramond $U(1)$ gauge field of IIA string theory. The nonzero topological susceptibility of pure-glue QCD can be attributed to the presence of D6 branes, which constitute magnetic sources of the RR gauge field. The topological charge of QCD is required, by an anomaly inflow argument, to coincide in space-time with the intersection of the D6 branes and the D4 color branes. This clarifies the relation between D6 branes and the coherent, codimension-one topological charge membranes observed in QCD Monte Carlo calculations. Using open-string/closed-string duality, we interpret a quark loop (represented by a D4-D8 open string loop) in terms of closed-string exchange between color and flavor branes. The role of the RR gauge field in quark-antiquark annihilation processes is discussed. RR exchange in the s-channel generates a 4-quark contact term which produces an $\eta'$ mass insertion and provides an explanation for the observed spin-parity structure of the OZI rule. The $(\log {\rm Det\;U})^2$ form of the $U(1)$ anomaly emerges naturally. RR exchange in the t-channel of the $q\overline{q}$ scattering amplitude produces a Nambu-Jona Lasinio interaction which may provide a mechanism for spontaneous breaking of $SU(N_f)\times SU(N_f)$., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures

While sign-coherent 4-dimensional structures cannot dominate topological charge fluctuations in the QCD vacuum at all scales due to reflection positivity, it is possible that enhanced coherence exists over extended space-time regions of lower dimension. Using the overlap Dirac operator to calculate topological charge density, we present evidence for such structure in pure-glue SU(3) lattice gauge theory. It is found that a typical equilibrium configuration is dominated by two oppositely-charged sign-coherent connected structures (``sheets'') covering about 80% of space-time. Each sheet is built from elementary 3-d cubes connected through 2-d faces, and approximates a low-dimensional curved manifold (or possibly a fractal structure) embedded in the 4-d space. At the heart of the sheet is a ``skeleton'' formed by about 18% of the most intense space-time points organized into a global long-range structure, involving connected parts spreading over maximal possible distances. We find that the skeleton is locally 1-dimensional and propose that its geometrical properties might be relevant for understanding the possible role of topological charge fluctuations in the physics of chiral symmetry breaking., Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 4 figures; v2: 6 pages, 5 figures, more explanations provided, figure and references added, published version

We consider the lattice topological charge density introduced by Hasenfratz, Laliena and Niedermayer and propose its eigenmode expansion as a tool to investigate the structure of topological charge fluctuations in QCD. The resulting effective density is built from local chiralities studied previously. At every order of the expansion the density exactly sums up to the global topological charge, and the leading term describes the maximally smooth space-time distribution of charge relevant for propagating light fermions. We use this framework to demonstrate our previous suggestion that the bulk of topological charge in QCD does not effectively appear in the form of quantized unit lumps. Our conclusion implies that it is unlikely that the mixing of "would-be" zeromodes associated with such lumps is the prevalent microscopic mechanism for spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in QCD. We also present first results quantitatively characterizing the space-time behavior of effective densities. For coherent fluctuations contained in spherical regions we find a continuous distribution of associated charges essentially ending at ~0.5., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTex; v2: typo in eq. (3) fixed; v3: References added, minor cosmetic changes, unchanged conclusions, published version

The reasons for using low-lying Dirac eigenmodes to probe the local structure of topological charge fluctuations in QCD are discussed, and it is pointed out that the qualitative double-peaked behavior of the local chiral orientation probability distribution in these modes is necessary, but not sufficient for dominance of instanton-like fluctuations. The results with overlap Dirac operator in Wilson gauge backgrounds at lattice spacings ranging from a~0.04 fm to a~0.12 fm are reported, and it is found that the size and density of local structures responsible for double-peaking of the distribution are in disagreement with the assumptions of the Instanton Liquid Model. More generally, our results suggest that vacuum fluctuations of topological charge are not effectively dominated by locally quantized (integer-valued) lumps in QCD., Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures; v2: minor improvements in presentation, results and conclusions unchanged, version to appear in PRD

We discuss the utility of low-lying Dirac eigenmodes for studying the nature of topological charge fluctuations in QCD. The implications of previous results using the local chirality histogram method are discussed, and the new results using the overlap Dirac operator in Wilson gauge backgrounds at lattice spacings ranging from a~0.04 fm to a~0.12 fm are reported. While the degree of local chirality does not change appreciably closer to the continuum limit, we find that the size and density of local structures responsible for chiral peaking do change significantly. The resulting values are in disagreement with the assumptions of the Instanton Liquid Model. We conclude that the fluctuations of topological charge in the QCD vacuum are not locally quantized., Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Lattice2001(confinement)

The low-lying eigenmodes of the Dirac operator associated with typical gauge field configurations in QCD encode, among other low-energy properties, the physics behind the solution to the $U_A(1)$ problem (i.e. the origin of the $\eta'$ mass), the nature of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, and the physics of string-breaking, quark-antiquark pair production, and the OZI rule. Moreover, the space-time chiral structure of these eigenmodes reflects the space-time topological structure of the underlying gauge field. We present evidence from lattice QCD on the local chiral structure of low Dirac eigenmodes leading to the conclusion that topological charge fluctuations of the QCD vacuum are not instanton-dominated. The result supports Witten's arguments that topological charge is produced by confinement-related gauge fluctuations rather than instantons., Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures

The OZI rule is prominent in hadronic phenomena only because OZI violation is typically an order of magnitude smaller than expected from large N_c arguments. With its standard ^3P_0 pair creation operator for hadronic decays by flux tube breaking, the quark model respects the OZI rule at tree level and exhibits the cancellations between OZI-violating meson loop diagrams required for this dramatic suppression. However, if the quark model explanation for these cancellations is correct, then OZI violation would be expected to be large in the nonet with the same quantum numbers as the pair creation operator: the 0^{++} mesons. Experiment is currently unable to identify these mesons, but we report here on a lattice QCD calculation which confirms that the OZI rule arises from QCD in the vector and axial vector mesons as observed, and finds a large violation of the rule in the scalar mesons as anticipated by the quark model. In view of this result, we make some remarks on possible connections between the ^3P_0 pair creation model, scalar mesons, and the U_A(1) anomaly responsible for the large OZI violation which drives the \eta' mass. In particular, we note that our result favors the large N_c and not the instanton interpretation of the solution to the \eta' mass problem., Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures; the original version of this paper had a sign error which affects the interpretation of some of the results; some new references added and typos corrected

Limits on the size of quenched chiral logs in the pion mass for Wilson fermions are investigated. The smallness of chiral logs is shown to be a result of the suppression of the hairpin diagram for small $p^2$, such that the value of the hairpin on the pion mass shell is much smaller than the physical $m_{\eta'}^2$. A direct calculation of the topological susceptibility from the same data gives $m_{\eta'}\approx 1$ GeV.

A method for computing electromagnetic properties of hadrons in lattice QCD is applied to the extraction of electromagnetic properties of the octet baryons. This allows a determination of the full dependence of the baryon masses on the charges and masses of the valence quarks. Results of a first numerical study (at $\beta=5.7$ with Wilson action and light quark masses fixed from the pseudoscalar meson spectrum) are reported. The octet baryon isomultiplet splittings (with statistical errors) are found to be: ${\rm N} - {\rm P} = 1.55(\pm 0.56)$, $\Sigma^0 - \Sigma^+ = 2.47(\pm 0.39)$, $\Sigma^- - \Sigma^0 = 4.63(\pm 0.36)$ and $\Xi^- - \Xi^0 = 5.68(\pm 0.24)$ MeV. Estimates of the systematic corrections arising from finite volume and the quenched approximation are included in these results.

A method for computing electromagnetic properties of hadrons in lattice QCD is described and preliminary numerical results are presented. The electromagnetic field is introduced dynamically, using a noncompact formulation. Employing enhanced electric charges, the dependence of the pseudoscalar meson mass on the (anti)quark charges and masses can be accurately calculated. At $\beta=5.7$ with Wilson action, the $\pi^+-\pi^0$ splitting is found to be $4.9(3)$ MeV. Using the measured $K^0-K^+$ splitting, we also find $m_u/m_d = .512(6)$. Systematic errors are discussed.

The results of an extensive study of B-meson properties in quenched lattice QCD are presented. The studies are carried out in the static quark limit where the b-quark is taken to be infinitely massive. Our computations rely on a multistate smearing method introduced previously, with smearing functions generated from a relativistic lattice quark model. Systematic errors arising from excited state contamination, finite volume effects, and the chiral extrapolation for the light quarks are estimated. We obtain continuum results for the mass splitting M_{B_s}- M_{B_u} = 86 (+/-)12(stat) {+7/-9}(syst) MeV, the ratio of decay constants f_{B_s}/f_{B_u} = 1.22 (+/-)0.04(stat) (+/-)0.02 (syst). For the B-meson decay constant we separately exhibit the sizable uncertainties in the extrapolation to the continuum limit a -> 0 and higher order perturbative matching. We obtain f_{B} = 188 (+/-)23(stat) (+/-)15(syst) {+26/-0}(extrap) (+/-)14 (pert) MeV. ----- [Postscript version of paper available by anonymous ftp at fncrd6.fnal.gov. The file is fb.ps in subdirectory theory.], Comment: 75 pages, FERMILAB-PUB-94/164-T